Milford picks PARCC over MCAS

Thursday

Jun 5, 2014 at 10:23 PMJun 5, 2014 at 10:23 PM

By Lindsay CorcoranDaily News Staff

MILFORD – Despite some continued concern over whether the state will decide to switch to a new standardized test next year, the School Committee voted unanimously Thursday night to test students using PARCC rather than MCAS next year.Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Kevin McIntyre recommended testing students in grades three through eight with the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test in the 2014-2015 school year.He recommended that grades 9 and 11 continue testing with MCAS and revisit switching those grades to PARCC next year."This will allow students and teachers to engage in the PARCC test with no impact on accountability," said McIntyre, noting that the state won’t be holding schools accountable for scores in 2014-2015 school year.While Milford will be making the switch to PARCC, which is designed as a computer-based test, students will not be taking in online next year.McIntyre said the schools don’t currently have the infrastructure to offer the test online, but noted he’d be hesitant to do it online next year anyway given the feedback from schools across the state that tried it out this year."Based on some of the issues that occurred, I’d be hesitant to jump in on the first round with online testing even if we only did a percentage," McIntyre said.At the last School Committee meeting, McIntyre raised some concern over the fact that the state won’t be deciding on the switch to PARCC until October, while the schools had to decide by June 30 if they wanted to be guaranteed paper copies of the test."If the state goes back to MCAS, I feel comfortable that Milford would be able to jump back," McIntyre said. "I do think that’s a small possibility."School Committee member Jennifer Parson said she was concerned about the burden administering the test will place on the schools, but agreed when McIntyre noted it was likely the switch would have to be made at some point and at least next year schools won’t be held accountable for scores.Contact Lindsay Corcoran at 508-634-7582 or lcorcoran@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @LacorcMDN.